Love, Simon is one helluva movie. For anyone who’s struggled to come to terms with their sexuality, tell their friends, deliver the news to their parents, or live life in the closet—this movie is for ALL of you. And it’s masterfully crafted, characterized, and acted to deliver the ultimate impact by the film’s end.
The film follows 17-year-old Simon (Nick Robinson) who’s completely and utterly normal—almost to a fault. But, as he puts it, he’s keeping "a huge-ass secret." We all know that secret and have kept it at one point or another. For Simon, though, the gravity of his secret amplifies when a fellow classmate anonymously posts online that they’re gay, too. And so, as you do when you’re a kid, Simon tries to connect with this person. And succeeds! And falls in love! And is happy!
As happy and almost carefree as the film is up to this point, we’re all waiting so for something to go horribly awry for Simon. It does, unfortunately, thanks to Martin (Logan Miller), the annoying classmate that’s blackmailing our protagonist with his knowledge of that huge-ass secret. While Martin attempts to weaponize Simon’s homosexuality, Simon tries to retain his privacy and his dignity by humoring Martin. But that goes wrong, too, and eventually, Simon is forced to come out to everyone he knows.
"It’s almost like I can feel you holding your breath. I wanted to ask you about it, but I didn't want to pry," Simon’s mom, Emily (Jennifer Garner) says in the film's most emotional moment.
That’s exactly what being in the closet feels like—holding your breath, waiting for permission to breathe, and even dying a little in the process. That one line, delivered with extraordinary empathy by Jennifer Garner, is just one of the many things this film gets right.
In an era of social consciousness and self-awareness, Love, Simon also ventures into territory that’s seldom seen in LGBT cinema. It addresses things like casual racism and microaggressions, homophobia, bullying, and the dangers of outing other people with surprising ease and care. And we should be thanking our lucky stars that this film does all of that so gracefully and with so much love for not just the LGBT community, but for anyone who feels othered in some way.
At every turn, Love, Simon makes you truly feel for the characters presented on screen whether they be gay, straight, black, white, or just...different. Martin, for example, is a pseudo-enemy in the film yet conjures up the audience’s sympathy because he, like Simon, is just a kid struggling to find his place in the world. That’s all we really are, anyway, right?
There are two things Love, Simon will leave you with when you leave the theater: a smile and the feeling that everything’s going to be alright. If you haven’t already, go see this film. And after, support as many LGBT films as you can because we need more films and more stories like this. We deserve them.
